Trans-FUCKING-everything

[Regina]

I'm actually questioning whether this thread is serious, or whether it's a troll-ish mockery of over-dramatic "SOCIAL JUSTICE!!!" internet culture. I'm not convinced either way.

Not quite sure how another woman blinding herself affects you either. She and her family are the ones who have to live with it. We can "appropriate blindness" now apparently...

Not to discredit your experiences with blindness Quill, I understand you've had struggles. I just think this reaction is totally un-warranted and over-dramatic in this particular instance.

[Longhorn]

Maybe I was a bit harsh in the shun her category but just because she's mentally ill doesn't mean she shouldn't face some ridicule and social consequences. She obviously has some reasoning capacity and I think if she'd been sent to a proper therapist. Maybe actually met some blind people before her " decision", she would have (not right away of course) realized she was being both irrational and disrespectful. And I think she's going to realize how crazy what she did was, and be very regretful.

Her need to be blind doesn't come from misconceptions about blind people. It's not something she thinks would make her cool. It's not something she could decide against. Her desire to become blind is not something you could make go away with telling her about the struggles blind people face, or the hardships of living with a disability. She did not arrive at this state by a train of thought, so you can't make her change her mind with your train of thought.

Her condition was likely caused by a neurological failing. You say that she has some reasoning capacity - obviously, she does. However, she does not reason in this particular department affected by her disorder. She has no control whatsoever over those thoughts, and holding them against her as if she could help being ill is pretty disrespectful, too. She's disabled as well. The disability being mental doesn't make it any more voluntary.

[BrokenQuill92]

Maybe I was a bit harsh in the shun her category but just because she's mentally ill doesn't mean she shouldn't face some ridicule and social consequences. She obviously has some reasoning capacity and I think if she'd been sent to a proper therapist. Maybe actually met some blind people before her " decision", she would have (not right away of course) realized she was being both irrational and disrespectful. And I think she's going to realize how crazy what she did was, and be very regretful.

Should you face consequences for accidentally walking into a wall? No. So then why should this woman face all the same issues you do along with a overwhelming urge to maime herself and you wanted to shun for disrespect? You know your urge to eat? Imagine that being an urge to hurt yourself and you may understand this women.

What she did hurts people. Yeah she should have mental help BUT that you don't seem to realize that people like her trample over the lived experiences and struggles of people with disabilities. It does not matter what her mental state is, the problem is that she sees disability as a "lifestyle". She is not dim, notice how many "transabled" people pick out some kind of mostly physical disability. So far no has said, hey I should have been born with Down's syndrome.

[Longhorn]

[Longhorn]

What she did hurts people.

How?

Yeah she should have mental help BUT that you don't seem to realize that people like her trample over the lived experiences and struggles of people with disabilities.

How? By being mentally disabled?

It does not matter what her mental state is, the problem is that she sees disability as a "lifestyle".

Citation please? And....'It doesn't matter what her mental state is?' Really?

It doesn't matter that some impairment in her brain is making her have involuntary oppressive urges to harm herself, she should just, you know, not have a mental disorder? Is that what you're saying?

She is not dim, notice how many "transabled" people pick out some kind of mostly physical disability. So far no has said, hey I should have been born with Down's syndrome.

Yeah, just like you picked to be blind.

I'm starting to wonder if you're serious.

[BrokenQuill92]

Not sure what you're trying to say by posting a picture

[Nine]

Not sure what you're trying to say by posting a picture

Its just an illustration of the point being made. I'll transcribe it for you since its here and I have a couple mins.


First panel is a man looking over another shivering in bed and the one looking over him saying "I get that you have food poisoning and all but you could at least make an effort for the rest of us"

Second a woman pointing at a guy with his hand cut off and bleeding "I think if you just changed your frame of mind you'd probably feel better."

Third is a man leaning over a toilet and another looking at him saying "Have you tried... you know... not having the flu?"

Fourth a man injecting himself in the hip and somebody looking at him saying "I don't think its healthy for you to have to take medication every day just to feel normal. Don't you worry that its changing you from who you really are?"

Fifth is somebody bleeding from the gut and somebody telling them "Its like you're not even trying."

And the final one somebody in a bed with an IV plugged into a machine and somebody saying "Well, lying in bed all day obviously isn't helping you. You need to try something else."

Its not all entirely relevant but acting as if somebody who's actions are very likely routed in mental illness as being somebody who is going out of their way to harm disabled people seems incredibly bizarre to me. I have a few more things to add but I'll do that in a separate post a bit later.

[MentalGiant]

I find it hard to understand personally as I would be devastated to go blind or loose a limb, but people with this disorder truly believe a healthy part of their body doesn't belong and will go to great lengths to remove or ruin it. I can't imagine how horrible it must be to go through your whole life feeling you had been born "wrong" and society having no tolerance for you taking actions to finally feel like a whole, healthy person. This woman had a very unusual presentation of a very rare disorder. People who have BIID clearly have something hardwired wrong in their brain. They don't process or perceive the body part as part of them. There is a lot of debate about how to treat patins with the disorder, though it seems most will stop at nothing to remove or destroy what they don't feel is a part of them.

http://www.biid.org
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/22/health....html?_r=0
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19132621
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_integ...y_disorder

[Nine]

I'm so furious I can barely type this! Just how dare she! I hope she is UTTERLY SHUNNED by the blind community! She's just so awful! It's fucking Rachel Dolezal all over again! You stupid bitch! You have no right, none at all to just sit there and appropriate the experiences and culture (yes blind people have their own culture) of the visually impaired and blind! I just GRRR!!!! She should be in the loony bin chewing on sporks! I'm just so upset right now.

So, I don't know a whole lot about what she's actually done or her reasoning or mental state but have looked into similar things with those who mutilate themselves in other ways for similar reasons. Its incredibly likely that there are some incredibly deep seated mental issues behind whats she's done. Granted its stupid or irrational but expecting rationality out of something defined by its being irrational is absurd. We can't pretend actions performed from a place of mental illness are going to be rational a lot of the time.

I can see why people would be upset with it too. If you have suffered through something without choice and had to live with it then somebody finding that they find that state of suffering as something they want I can understand as being belittling. But honestly it doesn't actually cause a real harm outside of some hurt feelings. Some fringe case of somebody causing disability themselves isn't going to mean people treat people with that disability differently. The rights of disabled people aren't going to change because of it. The only person who has been actually harmed more than hurt feelings is her. Even if she were completely mentally sound and it was a rational decision to make herself blind and that it bring her happiness that I still don't see how much of an issue it really would be. 

Also on a side note I call bullshit on cultural appropriation as a thing. Its just pointlessly divisive and mean spirited. But that's a whole other discussion xD

[Regina]

Also on a side note I call bullshit on cultural appropriation as a thing. Its just pointlessly divisive and mean spirited. But that's a whole other discussion xD

Agreed. When I hear "cultural appropriation!", I hear that 5 year old in the school playground who says "that's only cool when I do it".

You can't steal culture. Just because a person from "outside" the culture does something, that doesn't mean you can't do it anymore.